Springfield to welcome new $15 million downtown hotel in 2020

A little over a week after the MGM Springfield development opened its doors in Massachusetts and a local developer has reportedly announced plans that will see him build a new 100-room hotel only a few hundred feet away.

Home2 Suites by Hilton:

According to a Sunday report from The Republican newspaper, Louis Masaschi from the Springfield suburb of Longmeadow is intending to spend approximately $15 million via his JLL Realty Developers LLC concern to bring a five-story Home2 Suites by Hilton franchise to a site in the city’s historic Smith Carriage Company District.

The developer declared that the new hotel has been designed by Atlanta-based Hogan-Campis Architecture and is due to include ten suits as well as a pool, conference facilities and valet parking services.

Masaschi to The Republican…

“I think it’s a great project. I look forward to it being up and built. I think it’s a big bonus to the downtown area. Having MGM [Springfield] there makes it very attractive to me and the Hilton.”

Opening planned for summer of 2020:

The site for the envisioned hotel is currently occupied by a vacant warehouse and Masaschi told the local newspaper that demolition work is set to begin later this month or in early-October following the completion of a structural analysis investigation and the receipt of the necessary authorizations. The developer moreover stated that the foundations for the new structure will then be laid before the onset of winter with the venue due to welcome its first guests some 14 to 16 months later.

Development put into motion following delay:

The Republican reported that Masaschi first proposed building the new Springfield hotel some two years ago but that his plan had been temporarily delayed due to a city ordinance designed to preserve historic buildings. The newspaper explained that the holdup had stemmed from a 2016 ruling from the Springfield Historical Commission that the 100-year-old warehouse currently on the downtown site was historic.

Despite assertions from the developer that the warehouse had been empty for over 40 years and was in a poor condition, this decision nevertheless brought an automatic nine-month delay to demolition proceedings, which ended in January of last year.

Project now has city support:

Notwithstanding this interruption, Masaschi told the newspaper that city officials are now supportive of his plan while the reaction from Las Vegas-headquartered MGM Resorts International, which opened its $960 million MGM Springfield property on August 24, had been ‘very positive.’